


Can't see the signs

by RedRaidingHood



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 16:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1785610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRaidingHood/pseuds/RedRaidingHood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prank gone wrong leaves Jason temporary blinded. Of course Nico doesn’t let him stumble through Camp alone which results in just a little bit of touching.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't see the signs

"I don’t know how you can laugh at this"

"It’s not that bad, Nico," Jason grabbed the hand Nico was waving in front of his face for the umpteenth time without looking. Not that he  _ could _ see anyway; the Stoll’s last prank had gone wrong quite a bit and now Jason was left without sight for some time. The Apollo-kids had said it was temporary at least and the Hecate-kids, whose spell the Stoll brothers had used, had agreed to their diagnosis. Thus it was more annoying than worrisome really.

Nico pulled his hand out of Jason’s grip and huffed. It was obvious he was far more angry than Jason, but right now Jason needed him to be his eyes for a while and not storm off to rain death upon other campers.

"I can’t believe you! What would happen if there’s an attack? How do they expect you to even find your sword or your cabin?" Nico messaged his temples "How can you be so calm?"

Jason shrugged, "I got you"

Nico blushed and turned sharply to his blind friend, his whole anger suddenly dispersed and replaced by a small, guilty spark of joy. Not that he  _ liked _ Jason’s temporary disability, but it did feel kind of nice being needed.

"Hey, um… can you?" Jason raised his hand in the approximate direction of Nico’s voice.

"O-Oh yeah, right" Nico caught himself and walked over to where Jason sat in the grass where the Apollo-kids had left him after examining his eyes. Jason looked pretty normal though; Nico crouched down smiling a little at the hand grabbing for him, before he reluctantly allowed the touch. He took Jason’s hand in his own but immediately let go again when he felt an unexpected electric spark shock him, and promptly fell on his ass.

"Sorry, nervous habit," Jason apologized, retracting his hand.

Nico just hummed and rubbed his sore limb. He studied Jason’s face and even though his eyes weren’t focusing, Nico could clearly see the distress in them. Jason was a lot more scared by the whole situation than he wanted to show; Nico felt a cold lump settle in his chest. How could he have been happy, even just a little bit, when Jason was suffering? He sighed and crawled back to Jason, sitting down beside him, their shoulders touching.

"No need to be. You got me, don’t you?"

Jason laughed, shoving his shoulder softly. "Don’t mock me"

"Wouldn’t dream of it," Nico smiled. It might not be okay to be happy about the fact that Jason needed someone to take care of him right now, but maybe it was okay to be happy about the fact that Jason actually seemed to relax when Nico assured him of his help.

Jason’s warmth invaded Nico’s own body from where they were touching, Jason leaning on him, trusting him to hold him up.

"Hey, wanna go somewhere else?"

Out of habit, Jason’s head turned towards him "What’s wrong with sitting here?"

"My bum’s getting wet."

"Oh. Oh!", Jason laughed "Well, now that you mention it, the Demeter kids went around here watering the plants or something earlier, and I slipped when I chased after Connor and Travis."

Nico nodded. "I saw that.  _ Grace _ ful."

"Seriously?" Jason rose an eyebrow.

"What? I couldn’t  _ not _ take that chance!", Nico grinned, raising his hands in defence. He started to stand up. "Come on, lets get somewhere more comfortable."

Jason rose unsteady and it took Nico a moment to remember he wouldn’t be able to follow him on his own. A little helpless, Jason extended his hand and this time, Nico only sighed before reaching out and grabbing it. At least he wasn’t shocked again.

Guiding Jason like that felt like dragging him though and it wasn’t long before Jason inevitably slipped on the wet grass again. Purely on instinct, Nico moved in and caught him. They got a few surprised stares but right now, Nico only cared about being able to steady his friend.

Jason sounded miserable when he apologized and for the umpteenth time, Nico wanted to kill the Stolls. When Jason stood on his own feet again, Nico wrapped his arm around his waist, pulling Jason’s own arm over his shoulder. The surprised sound he received actually made him smile a little smugly.

"Oh come on, Jason. You didn’t think I would be strong enough to lift you?"

It was only a little creepy to have those gorgeous blue eyes staring at him, when he knew they couldn’t see him. "That’s not the amazing thing I had to think of just now," Jason said and squeezed his shoulder. Nico just rolled his eyes and blushed again. Just because he didn’t like to get touched by just anyone, didn’t actually mean he didn’t like touching in general.

They walked like this for a little while, Jason obviously got used to it; he kept close to Nico and had a firm grip on his shoulder, but he was already walking like he just normally hung all over Nico when they moved through Camp.

It wasn’t long before they got to the Zeus Cabin, and after some fidgeting, both of them sat on the steps to the temple-like building, Jason’s arm still draped over Nico.

"So, what did actually happen back there?"

"Do we have to talk about it?"

"Jason, you got a spell used on you, by two idiots who didn’t know what they were doing  _ and _ they were doing it  _ wrong,  _ stupido. A spell like that would’ve been dangerous even if they’d known how to cast it!" Nico raged, moving his hands about and nearly throwing Jason’s arm off.

"What did you just call me?"

Nico looked startled for a moment, than went red and cringed. "That’s not  _ that _ difficult to translate."

Jason laughed. "Say something in Italian!"

A small smile stole its way to Nico’s lips. "You wouldn’t understand anything", he replied.

"I would!" Jason pushed out his chest in mock pride and tried to imitate Nico’s gestures while talking. "Pasta, vaffanculo chi se ne frega bastardo!"

It was all Nico could do not to laugh so loud the whole Camp could hear – still some campers shot them curious glances. He could hardly breath again, when he wiped a tear from his eye and observed the smug look in Jason’s face. It was cute, really. Jason had probably no idea what he had said, or how badly he pronounced the words, but he still looked like he had just won the jackpot.

"How did you know all that? Do you even realize they’d kick you out of Rome when they heard you talking like that!"

Jason grinned like an idiot. "Was it that bad? Sorry, I didn’t mean to, I’ve just repeated the stuff you’re always saying"

"I’m…?" Nico was a little shocked. He hadn’t realized he fell back into Italian often enough for Jason to memorize anything but single words; not that he even spoke Italian often – the only one he could talk to in his native tongue was… himself…

"Hey, um…" Nico looked up at the hesitant tone in Jason’s voice. He had moved his head in Nico’s general direction and these unnerving eyes, that couldn’t see, looked at him. "Can I try something?"

Nico nodded dumbfounded, then found his voice. "Sure, what is it?"

His whole body now turning towards Nico, Jason raised his hands and wriggled his fingers. He tried smiling but it came out a little goofy.

"Can I see you?"

Nico knew immediately what he meant; his chest constricted. Sure, he’d let Jason touch him much today, and he did like touching when it came to Jason, but this was a little… intimate. Nico grit his teeth and took a deep breath. He  _ wanted _ Jason to touch him, but this was an experiment; Jason was blind only temporary and he probably just wanted to know how it was, not being able to see and rather feel the face of another person.

Jason seemed to get the wrong impression though and started opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something, but didn’t know what since he really didn’t know what Nico was thinking, what expression he was wearing. Just when he closed his mouth a final time, Nico took Jason’s hands in his, guiding and holding them on his face.

He could not stop his mouth from saying "You can’t. You’re blind."

Jason’s fingers started moving slowly, the tips brushing over his cheekbones, moving up to his temples, the thumbs softly stroking his cheeks. Jason’s whole attention was on him, his lips a thin, content smile he tried to suppress by biting them, the small, cute scar forming a half-moon over them. Even though he could not see, those blue eyes were fixed on Nico’s, an emotion filling them that Nico would not allow himself to analyze. It was nice, it felt nice, but still a little… overwhelming. Nico closed his eyes when calloused fingers brushed over them softly. Jason’s hands ghosted all over his face, getting a little faster, a little bolder and finally, his thumb pressed against Nico’s lips. Neither moved, waited for the other to act for a minute, then Jason slowly retracted his hands.

Nico could still feel his fingers lingering on his skin, Jason’s thumb softly parting his lips; he released the breath he hadn’t noticed he was holding.

"M-maybe I should get some sleep." Jason’s voice was wavering, but Nico was too occupied to really notice. He still had his eyes closed and breathed deliberately. Never had he thought his heart could beat that fast without breaking through his chest. Still, it only hurt a little. A good kind of hurt though.

"Probably…" Jason still sounded strange, his normally strong voice filled with something else, something unfamiliar. Nico felt him stand up and finally opened his eyes to see if Jason needed help. Immediately, Jason’s eyes found his and Nico wasn’t sure whether the spell was already fading. They were captivating. Always had been, and Nico had always hoped for an excuse to stare into them endlessly; now that he had the chance, the perfect excuse to look, all he could think of was Jason’s  _ touch _ .

The son of Zeus stood at his door a little awkward, fidgeting and biting his lip. "So, um… good night? - Oh, and thank you, Nico! You know, for… everything."

Those callused fingers that had been on his face just moments ago were now opening the door hesitantly. "Yeah, good night" Nico nodded and smiled sardonically. There was no way he’d ever have a chance of feeling those hands on him in a non-platonic manner, was there?

**Author's Note:**

> You might want to listen to P.O.D.s "Going in Blind", which I was listening to while writing this. It was actually born through writing practise and a mix of boredom and writer's block; and I think reading the whole Skulduggery Pleasant series (up to Kingdom of the Wicked) influenced its style a little bit.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!  
> Feel free to comment and/or criticize <3


End file.
